Hello everybody! This is a new story that I suddenly came up with after reading one of my reader's reviews who suggested on it that I do this. For now though, I will not disclose which game this is borrowing off of. Naturally, this is going to be in the Sonic world simply because you either found this in that section when searching for a story or saw that it derived from it in the story description. Either way, the moment you read this first chapter, you'll be able to figure out what I borrowed from provided you played or heard of it before.

Anyway, I hope that this story, which is also a mystery style like my other recent Sonic story, will pique your interest in wanting to read more of it as they continue to arrive hot off of the press. I still can't believe that I managed to come up with this concept all because I read another fellow reader's review suggesting it. Thanks to swiftshadow123 for supplying me with this idea when I was running out of fresh ideas to write about. And just for the record, he only hinted that I write one with this style; I came up with the plot and all that.

And to those who have read my other Sonic mystery story, I'm not giving up on that. I'm just taking a small change of scenery after I accidentally got myself into a roadblock and continually forced it to be broken down and passable. As such, the idea well for that has been temporarily depleted and needs time to be reloaded.

For those who don't know how I write and would like to know, I only set up the beginning and ending for every new story that I create. It's a personal rule of mine so I know how to begin, which is very obvious and required, and how the story is going to end. That way, I can allow the entire middle section to be wild area that not even I know about with only the ending dictating how the middle portion of the story will be. Call me weird, but I don't like to think ahead beyond the ending when I write because I also like to be surprised with how the story will turn out.

Anyway, that's enough with my little rant that's starting to turn into senseless banter. I'll let you go ahead and start reading this new story of mine. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto your next story so I'll know how I'm doing. Until the next update on this or one of my other stories everybody!


Chapter 1: Life After Death

"Wow, that must've been some nap I took," somebody thought as he felt himself begin to awake from his sleep. "I never felt this dizzy since the last time I crashed for over ten hours. Boy, I hope Tails doesn't go down my throat because of this."

As the person opened his eyes, he noticed that his surroundings were blurry. This was to be expected since he was just waking up from a nap. Once this faze had passed, he took a look at his surroundings and immediately became shocked at what he saw.

He was currently inside what looked to be a park that was situated at the end of a dead end street. Brick walls surrounded three sides of it with the fourth being the only way in and out. Playground structures for where kids could play and a seating area for people to congregate were clearly seen under the streetlamps illuminating the night sky. Except for a small building close by that was currently empty as indicated by the dark windows, there were no buildings within what was most likely a five minute walking distance. It was here at one of the corners of the wall that what made the person gasp in shock could be seen.

"Wh-what the hell?" he thought as he tried to comprehend the sight that was just a couple of feet away from him. A hedgehog with fur as blue as the purest sapphire in the world was lying face-down on the ground. Collecting around his chest area was a pool of dark crimson liquid that was steadily growing bigger by the second. Standing over the presumably dead body was a person with a gun in his hand. Right in front of the person and kneeling down next to the fallen body was a two-tailed fox that looked to have been trying to revive the other and ignoring the danger in front of him.

"B-b-but that can't be right!" the person exclaimed as he absorbed the hellish sight before him. "I'm right here behind this guy with a gun! How can I be there on the floor bleeding my life away if I'm here?"

"Why did you do this?" the two tailed fox demanded angrily with eyes moistened by the beginning of tears as he whipped his head towards the gunman while still staying in his kneeling position. "What has he ever done to you?"

"It's not a matter of what he did to me that's the issue here," the gunman, a man wearing a plain white coat and simple blue jeans, responded calmly as he brought his gun up and pointed it at the other. "He just happened to be around at the right time for me."

"And so you just wanted to kill the next random person you just happened to run into regardless of who they were?" the fox asked with a small sniffle leaving the back of his throat. It was clear he was either very angry or very brave to not be frightened by the presence of something that could potentially kill him.

"That's pretty much the gist of it, boy," the man responded with a hint of regret to his words as he brushed at his long red hair with his free hand. "Unfortunately, I didn't expect for you to come by and become a witness to this unfortunate event. As much as I don't want to do this, I'm afraid I'll have to be stealing away another life tonight."

"Figures that you would do that. You want to get away with this as clean as you possibly can. Its people like you that…"

Suddenly, both the gunman and fox and everything else around them seemed to have gained a sort of discoloration to them. Also, both people stopped moving; the fox was still in his kneeling position with the angry face plastered on while the gunman still had his gun trained at him. The real odd thing about it was that even the leaves that had fallen off from a nearby tree seemed to be suspended in midair as if it were simply glued onto a canvas. It was almost as if time had stopped for everything around the only person who seemed to be aware about this strange phenomenon.

"Wh-what the hell is going on here?" the person exclaimed as he whipped his head left and right as if to see if what he was witnessing was real. "Why did everything just up and stopped like that? This isn't natural!"

"Hmm, it looks like you woke up quicker than I anticipated," another voice suddenly said with idle curiosity. "You truly are different from others that I've encountered. Most of them took at least a half a day after their death to come around. You must have an extraordinary will housed within your soul."

"Wh-who's there? Are you the one who did all this?"

"Humph, you sure are a direct hedgehog, aren't you?" the mysterious voice said with a hint of amusement in his words. "I suppose that only fits in with your overall character. Anyway, we don't have time to be discussing this. I believe that's your friend over in the land of the living who's about to be killed."

"Gah, I almost forgot about him because of this weirdness! I got to save him before it is too late and he ends up like me!"

"Hmm, you also seem to have all your memories intact. You really are a one-of-a-kind person. Anyway, I suggest that you don't worry about it right now. After all, I'm sure that you've noticed how time itself has stopped all around us."

"Why are you saying us? And where exactly are you?"

"We can worry about that little detail later. Right now, let me teach you something that will help you save your good friend from meeting the same ending as you."

"Uh, I don't know if you noticed this; but I'm dead here! How the hell am I going to be saving him without a body to call my own here?"

"Trust me; you're more than capable to perform such a miracle. I can tell that you have skills that not every freshly dead person can have. And don't worry about the time right now. It won't continue until I release us from the Spirit World."

"S-Spirit World? What the heck is that?"

"Look, I'll explain it to you later. Right now, I want you to look around where you are and tell me what you see."

For the first time since all this weirdness started, the hedgehog took the advice of the mysterious voice and looked around the discolored and frozen area around him. It was then that he noticed something strange that he did not see before the world was normal. He saw a perfectly round circle flashing near where he was over what looked to be a discarded bike bell, which also happened to be a flashing circle just behind the gunman.

"That, my good friend, is what we call here in the Spirit World cores," the mysterious voice began to explain. "It is how spirits with powers like you and me get around. Think of it as how the living people use their legs to move from place to place."

"Okay, so I can travel between these weird flashing lights," the spirit of the hedgehog said with a low growl at how the other was being difficult in supplying a simple straight answer. "How is that going to help me save my buddy in the real world?"

"Just hurry up and get there!"

Thinking that arguing was getting him nowhere, the dead hedgehog decided to follow the advice in hopes that he would be able to get his answers quicker. He quickly ran towards the other bright light and waited for further instructions from the voice.

"Alright, I'm going to unfreeze time and we'll see how things unfold," the voice stated once the deed was done. "I'll tell you what to do next when the time comes around. Right now, just sit back and watch the scene unfold."

And before the spirit hedgehog could say anything else in argument, he saw the world around him turn back to its original color, and everything began to move once more as if the temporary time freeze never occurred.

"…I just can't even begin to understand!" the two tailed fox finished off his sentence from before he was frozen. "You're nothing but a heartless man!"

"You couldn't possibly understand why I had to kill the hedgehog," the gunman said as he shook his head. "And I don't intend to spend all night explaining it to you. All you need to know is that I shot him for a very specific reason. And my specific reason for killing you is because you ran into me just as I was finishing up here. I suggest you start saying your prayers fox, because you're about to head in the same direction as that poor guy without any hopes of ever returning."

"Ring the bell now!" the mysterious voice suddenly said as the gunman pulled back on the hammer of his gun.

"Wh-what do you…?" the spirit of the dead hedgehog stuttered at the sudden command to do something, especially something that he should not be able to even do without the usage of a living and breathing body.

"Just imagine yourself with a real body ringing the bell," the voice quickly explained as a low growl was heard coming from the cornered fox. "Hurry, you only have a couple of seconds before he's killed!"

Knowing that now was not the time to be arguing, he just decided to go along with it and imagined himself with a body and ringing the discarded bike bell. In the next second, he was surprised to actually hear the familiar dinging sound of a bell being rung. This, of course, equally surprised the two living people in the park.

"Wh-who's there?" the gunman shouted as he briefly turned his attention towards where he heard the bell ring.

With this small moment of distraction, the two tailed fox quickly got up from his kneeling position and shoved the man off to the side. Surprised at this, he fell forward and dropped his gun in the process. With this new opening, the fox began to run away from the scene in fear for his life. Unfortunately, he was not able to get even a yard away before a he felt a hand grab at his ankle and force him to also fall flat to the ground.

"Thought you could get the slip through me, huh?" the gunman growled out as he kept a firm grip on the other's ankle. "It'll take more than a weak distraction like that for you to escape from your deadly mistake!"

"Good job, boy!" the mysterious voice congratulated the spirit of the dead hedgehog as both of the living people took a few seconds regaining their breath from the suddenness of the past seconds. "You managed to prolong the young fox's unfortunate demise by ever the slightest of seconds."

"But he's still basically in the same problem from earlier except now on the ground," the spirit pointed out as he felt like nothing had changed. "He's still going to be killed soon."

"Not unless you try to do something else," the voice stated as it froze time once again and transported them into what he had earlier called the Spirit World. "Take a look around and see where else you can wander off to."

As instructed, he looked around his current perch on the bike bell and looked around to see what other cores were nearby. To his astonishment, he saw another core that was not there the last time they were in this tome-frozen world lying about a foot away from him. Still confused, he wandered towards it since there was not another core he could see.

"I would suppose you're wondering why there's the sudden appearance of a new core when it wasn't there the last time," the voice voiced out the unspoken question hanging around the dead hedgehog's head. "You see, as the situations around you change, so does the immediate surroundings from time to time. You're currently inhabiting the murderer's gun, which happened to be in his hands before you distracted him. He had since dropped it, and it has become accessible to you."

"So that's why this is now here," he thought as he tried to wrap his brain around all this. "So cores are used as a means of transport for dead spirits like me, and they can change as situations in the real world change."

"That's exactly right! Now let's get back to the real world and see how things will turn out now."

And just as quickly as it had came around, the time freeze disappeared and began to move along its normal course.

"Thought I'd at least give it a try," the two tailed fox groaned out as he looked behind him to see how his attacker was faring. "Did you really think I wouldn't try to go down without at least a fight?"

"I commend your attitude, but I'm afraid your luck's about to end here," the gunman said as he reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out what was clearly a knife. "I've got you anchored to the ground. All I have to do now is drag you down a bit and stab you in the back. Couldn't be any simpler than that."

"Hurry and fire the gun!" the mysterious voice commanded once again. "I believe another distraction is in order here."

Without arguing this time around, the hedgehog spirit did as he was told and discharged the gun. The result was a loud bang echoing throughout the empty park and street. This, in turn, caused the two on the ground to look around in shock.

"Wh-what's going on around here?" the murderer exclaimed as he looked off towards his gun where he suspected the gunshot to have come from. "How did my gun just go and discharge like that?"

Once again distracted by a sudden noise, the two tailed fox took advantage of it and kicked the knife out of the man's hand with his free foot. He then kicked the hand around his ankle off and quickly got up and ran away.

"Damn, you're not going to get away with this!" the man growled out in pain as he quickly picked up a large tree branch lying next to him. In one swift movement, he threw it like a boomerang at the retreating boy and caused him to trip and fall once again when it connected with the back of his legs.

"Crud!" he shouted out as he felt his body hit the ground for the second time in less than a minute. This time, he landed on another tree branch right over his stomach which then caused him to be momentarily stunned through lack of air.

"Ha, you honestly think that you can get away from me boy?" the gunman asked as he got to his feet and grabbed his gun before running to the fox just as he was regaining his breath. Once there, he brought his foot down on his back and kept him pinned to the ground with a never-breaking firm stance. "It should be clear by now that no matter how hard you try, you can't get away from me."

"And he's on the ground again," the hedgehog spirit responded with a sigh at how they were simply repeating the same thing every time he did something. "Boy, he must really have the worst of luck tonight."

"Regardless, you still managed to extend his life by a few more precious seconds," the voice stated in an attempt to show that his actions were of great importance. "That alone is more than enough to give him a standing chance at living through this."

"By literally scraping by whatever seconds we can buy for him? That really doesn't sound like a good way for him to be saved. Anyway, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this now. Let me see what else I can do around here."

"Alright, that's enough with all these distractions," the gunman said as he quickly took a clip of ammo from his pocket and loaded it into his empty gun. Once it was securely in it, he pointed it right at the fox's head. "Now it's time for you to die."

"Crap, I can't go firing the gun again if I don't want him to be killed!" the hedgehog spirit exclaimed as he began to panic again. "Ghost buddy, take me to that Spirit World place again."

"Hmm, I'm afraid that you'll be in for a rather rude awakening. Nevertheless, I'll go ahead and let you see for yourself what I mean."

With these cryptic words said, the world once again discolored and froze in place. Again, a couple of bright lights known as cores could be seen scattered around the park and near where the hedgehog's spirit was right now, which happened to still be in the murderer's gun. It was with this time that he began to search for another usable path that would lead him to another worthwhile distraction that would allow the other to escape.

"That rock…!" he exclaimed as his eyes rested on a core on the ground just towards the left of the fox and maybe a couple of feet out of his reach. From his position in the gun, he calculated that it was probably just a little over two yards away. "If I can get there, then I'll be able to get it closer to him so he can smash that guy's foot off of him."

"Well, why don't you try heading off there instead of just thinking about it?" the mysterious voice recommended in a tone that seemed to say that he knew something that the other did not.

With a raised eyebrow, the hedgehog spirit ran towards where the rock was. However, just as he was about to get a hold of the core, he felt something holding him back and just out of reach from it. It was almost as if someone had tied him down to the core he was currently on and not allowing him to get away.

"Wh-what the hell is this?" the spirit exclaimed as he tried to fight against the thing that was preventing his progression with no success. He continued on while grunting at the effort, "Why can't I get to the next core? It's right there in front of me!"

"Oh, the restrictions of these ghostly tricks finally rear their ugly head. You see, you can only travel from core to core from certain distances. Every spirit who has this ability has different distances in which they are allowed to travel, and it appears that the distance between this core and the one you wish to go to are beyond your limitations."

"Then how can I get from here to that stupid rock?"

"Well, you can either go back to the real world and wait for your current core to move closer to it, or you find another core to travel to your intended core. However, I don't see any other cores to travel through, and I doubt that our murderer here is going to be moving anytime soon. In other words," the voice said in an amazingly calm voice, "I'm afraid that you and your buddy there are basically screwed."

"B-b-b-but that can't be right!" the hedgehog stuttered in shock as he turned to look at the still frozen form of his friend under the mercy of his soon-to-be murderer. "There has to be something that I can do here!"

"The only thing that you can do here is to let time move on as normal and see how things turn out. And who knows? Maybe the person you're trying to save will be able to come up with something now that you've bought him a few more seconds of life with each bought time also bringing in different situations."

Without waiting for another angered outburst from the hedgehog spirit, the world began to run on its normal course.

"And now, I'll give you the pleasure of seeing me kill you," the gunman said with a sense of sinister glee as he kicked the fox over to his back and stepped hard on his chest. He had inadvertently kicked him towards where the rock was, but it was still out of his reach by just a few measly inches. "Consider this an honor that you'll see the very moment of your death. Not many get to brace themselves for a death since they have no idea that it's coming."

"Gee, I suppose I should feel honored that you're doing this for me," the two tailed fox answered with heavy sarcasm dripping from his words. "Why is it then that I still hate you all the same?"

"Feel what you will, but I hope you'll gain the understanding on why I did this while you're in the afterlife. Now, while this interesting game of cat and mouse was fun, it's time to put an end to it. So long, and say hello to your friend if you happen to see him. Chances are, though, that you won't any time soon."

And before the two tailed fox could have a chance to ask what he was talking about, the sharp sound of a gun discharging was heard. In that very instant, the fox's head was pushed back into the ground ever so slightly, the result of a fast-moving bullet piercing straight through his skull and thus killing him in the process.

"Humph, now that takes care of all the loose ends here," the murderer said with a sigh as he walked back to where his knife was and picked it up. He then said before turning around and running away from the park, "I never imagined that such complications would've arisen from my seemingly simple plan."

Just as he was about to run by the now dead body of the fox with his gun still in his hands, time had frozen once again. He was now stuck mid-step of a run right next to his poor victim's body that has yet to collect a pool of blood from his fatal head wound.

"N-no, this can't be!" the hedgehog spirit whispered under his breath as he failed to notice time frozen around him. All he could comprehend now was his good friend when he was still alive was now like him, dead with no hope of coming back alive. "H-he can't be dead. He just can't be dead! Why did it have to be Tails?"

"Hmm, this truly is a most unfortunate occurrence apart from your death tonight," the mysterious voice said in a calm voice that was a direct opposite of the other's near hysterical version. "Then again, the situations revolving the new position you created just didn't have the tools necessary for you to prevent this. Truly a shame…"

"Then why didn't you help me out if you know how to do all these freaky ghost tricks?" the hedgehog spirit shouted at the voice he had no idea as to where it was. "You could've helped me to prevent all this from happening in the first place, but no; you just sat back on your butt telling me how to do all the dirty work."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but you must understand that I have been a spirit with powers like this for a while now. Like with old living people, my powers aren't what they used to be anymore. It took a good amount of my waning strength to get here and meet you for when you were to be killed. Yes, I knew you were to be killed, but only because I overheard the plan being spoken of by this very person here."

"And you were just hoping that I would gain this rare gift of ghostly powers? Ha, a lot of good it did me here. I couldn't even save my best friend from being killed by the same person who ended up doing me in."

"Oh, I knew that you were going to obtain these powers. Before you ask, you can just hawk it to my sort of sixth sense to these things. And secondly," the voice continued on before the hedgehog spirit could have a chance to ask a question, "what would you say if I told you that you're not done rescuing your friend yet? What if I told you that you still have time to rescue him from this sad fate?"

"Then I'd tell you to prove it."

"Very well then. I want you to take a closer look at the body of your recently deceased friend. Tell me what you see there."

"All I see is a different colored core coming from him… Wait a minute, what the hell is a core doing on him? I never saw one on him before, nor did I see one on this guy here."

"That's because these different colored cores only appear on those that have just died within the span of a day. You see, this core over his body is the very key to saving his life. If you want the full truth on what I mean, then I suggest that you make your way to that core. I'm sure that it's more than accessible from your current position."

"So you're saying that core is another way that I can save Tails, huh? If that's the case, then I'll take whatever chance I can get to get his life back on the right track and away from the dead scene."

"Ha, now that's the kind of confidence I liked to see when I watched you during your living days. Alright then; go ahead and approach that core. Don't worry; I'll help you with the process and explain things to you. For now, go ahead and initiate your abilities given to your soul upon your death."

After regaining his composure a bit and hearing all of these enlightening news that brightened his previously darkened attitude, the spirit of the hedgehog made his move. He moved from the gun, which was less than a foot away from the fox's, whose name was now known to be Tails, to the core hovering over him. The moment he laid his hands on it, the world around him disappeared and morphed into basic empty space with nothing but bright flashing lights to keep him company.

"Wh-what is this place?" he stuttered, something that he had been doing for quite a bit since he figured out he was dead. "It's like I just left the Earth and now just swimming aimlessly around in outer space."

"This is where your second chance to save this boy's life begins," the mysterious voice explained with a smile clear in his words. "This is where another one of your ghost powers will get their chance to be used to your advantage. Welcome to the place that is only accessible through those that have died within the time limit of a day. I call it the Gateway Between Past and Present."


Alright, for those of you who don't know what game I borrowed this from, I'll tell you. I got the idea, which I'll remind you all came from swiftshadow123 initially, from a game called "Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective". Like the name of the game says, it has a sense of mystery that takes place while the main character is dead. For the sake of this story, things are going to be changed around a bit to my style.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know why I find it so easy to write these mystery style stories in the form of Sonic universe. I guess the characters present in it are all diverse enough that to pull off such a feat is more than possible. If I tried it with another like the Jak and Daxter universe for example, it'd have to be way too serious and not enough funnies to balance it out. With Sonic characters, they're diverse enough to keep the story on the main path while being able to throw in a couple of interesting curve balls at the same time.

Anyway, I hope you all ended up enjoying the first chapter of this new story as much as I had making it. I hope that you will all continue to read it as the new chapters are published. Until next time everybody!

P.S.,

For those of you wondering why I did not mentioned "the dead hedgehog's" name in the story, it's because I wanted to give it a sense of mystery without having to take up so much time delving into the formal intro stuff. That and I started out the story with a bang that left little to no time for such a thing. So if you feeling irked because you know who it is and that I'm refusing to say it now, don't review me about that. I intentionally did that for the sake of the story, not because I simply had a dumb moment and forgot about it altogether.